The present invention relates to a harness cable connector and, more particularly, to a connector which receives and retains a plurality of wires for insertion and assembly into a printed circuit board and provides strain relief for the wires after assembly.
It is known in the prior art to construct cables from multiple strands of wire which may be bound together by cord or cable ties. It is also known to provide a plurality of insulated wires in a flat cable/round wire configuration wherein the wires are joined together by a woven harness or the wire insulation is molded into a flat cable. Flat cables have also been constructed by sandwiching conductive strips between layers of insulation to form a flexible ribbon-like cable.
The art is replete with electrical connectors for terminating the various cable configurations mentioned herein. For example, a bundle of bound or tied insulated wires may be terminated with individual terminals which are crimped to the end of each conductive wire and then connected to a terminal board by a plurality of screw terminals for receiving the individual terminals attached to each wire. With the flat cable/round wire configuration, it is known to provide insulation piercing connectors with conductive elements which pierce each round wire within the cable. The flexible ribbon-like cable has also been terminated by connectors which pierce the insulation layer to provide electrical connection between the flat cable and a suitable utilization device to which the connector is joined, such as a printed circuit board.